Choosing The Good Part As Mary Did

Speaker: Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines

July 21, 2025

in Spritual Growth

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July 20, 2025:
Readings: Genesis 18: 1-10a
Colossians 1:21-29
Luke 10:38-42
6th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2025 Homily – Abp. Hines

The Father came for His Children. His compassion and mercy prove His commitment to us. He teaches us the ways of His life so that we may enjoy the benefits of His blessings. However, we have listened to the world about how to bring happiness to our lives- and the world is not really going in the right direction. We think we are doing the right thing when we are in reality, being misled. If we look at the very beginning, we can see God’s purpose. Things were going smoothly, and all the provisions were there. Man did not need to sweat and toil because all he ever needed was there in the garden. Today, God has given us the Holy Spirit to do things right. If we are walking in God’s ways, we will be alright.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is walking on a journey to Jerusalem. There were crowds all around Him because the people had seen how He healed those with sicknesses, and how they were delivered from darkness. The way we live our lives will prove if we are following His ways or not. So He enters Bethany and stop at His friends’ house to rest. Martha welcomed Him into her home. We see Mary her sister, seated at the feet of Jesus, listening intently to Him. Martha, upon seeing this, complains to Jesus about Mary not helping her with all the work she had been doing. Jesus tried to calm Martha down and tells her, “Martha, Martha, you are distracted by so many things but only one thing is needed. And Mary has chosen the good part.” Martha was literally “killing herself” preparing a feast for Him and His apostles, she may be honoring Him but she was doing it her way, while Mary was honoring Him the way He should be honored.

The lesson here is that we’re constantly doing so many things and getting distracted by these so much so that we get confused and end up dissatisfied. Christ wants us to know that the one most important thing is our relationship with God. Proverbs 23:1-5 When you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you; And put a knife to your throat If you are a man given to appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food. Do not overwork to be rich, Because of your own understanding, cease! Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven. John 13; 5-8 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

Jesus has paid the ransom to set us free and to redeem us. We were bought with a price, and we belong to Him. If Christ is in us, can evil be in us? Does the enemy have the right to put anything in us if we belong to Christ? Christ is challenging us in this story of Mary and Martha. More than a story of two sisters in disagreement, it is telling us the one important thing that is needed. Romans 8:17 and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so, it be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Mary was listening to what she would be receiving from Christ. She was actually blessing Christ by listening to Him. Proverbs 2:3-5 “Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the Lord And find the knowledge of God.”

Discernment is realizing that what we do will bring a reaction. We need to choose the right. God looks at the heart. He sees our intentions. We honor Him by obeying Him because He makes us holy and righteous in Him.